The Philippe Buache map (1739)
Philippe Buache’s map (supposedly
of 1739, although, as we shall see, there are complications with
the date) has suffered the same fate as Piri’s and Orontius
Finaeus’s maps, to be used as evidence for an ancient
civilisation that mapped Antarctica when it was free from ice.
According to the title of the map, it is a ‘Carte des
Terres Australes comprises entre le Tropique du Capricorne et le
Pôle Antarctique où se voyent les nouvelles
découvertes faites en 1739 au Sud du Cap de Bonne
Esperance’ (‘Map of the Southern Lands contained
between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Pole, where the
new discoveries made in 1739 to the south of the Cape of Good
Hope may be seen’). Despite the frequent
‘fringe’ statements that the map was published in
1737, it gives the date of publication as 5 September 1739.
Moreover, the text describes Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de
Lozier’s (1704-1786) voyage to the south, which lasted from
19 July 1738 to 24 June 1739.
The map frequently mentions icebergs, freezing temperatures and glaciers; icebergs are even drawn in places. Bouvet’s Cape of the Circumcision, where he was unable to land owing to the icebergs, is now known to be the island that was named after him by the American whaler Benjamin Morrell (1795-1839) in 1822. This makes the claims that Buache’s map shows an ice-free Antarctica all the more bizarre, but it is clear that none of the fringe writers have bothered to read the French legends that cover the map. They have never been republished in full and in French on the web, so I have tabulated them below, together with English translations.
Left side of map |
Right side of map |
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| EXTRAIT DU VOYAGE AUX TERRES AUSTRALES
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EXTRACT FROM THE VOYAGE TO THE SOUTHERN LANDS
19 July 1738, the 2 frigates the Aigle and the Marie left from Port de l’Orient. * September passed the Equator. 11 October arrived at St Catherine’s Isle off the coast of Brasil. 13 November set sail from this island to go to look for latitude 44º roughly on 355º longitude. 26 [November] thick fog at latitude 35º and 344º longitude; often one could not make out objects at gun-shot distance. It lasted until the 20th of January. 3 December we began to see gulls and extremely large whales and numerous bids at 39º 20´ latitude and 35º longitude. Believing ourselves close to some land, we sounded without finding the bottom at 180 fathoms. 7 [December] cold weather even though we were then in the summer and the sun was close to the solstice. 10 [December] at latitude 44º and on the Prime Meridian, the land [we had come] to view is located in this place by some geographers. We could not find any land; either it has been mislocated or was just some island. 25 [December] at a latitude equivalent to that of Paris and 7º longitude, the air very cold. Saw the P... icebergs, which made one suspect nearby land. 28 [December], latitude 51º 13´ longitude 15º 22´, a variation of the compass observed from 24º northeast to 50º northwest; became 15 different irregularities which one had already observed in approaching the icebergs of Hudson Bay and the Davis Strait. First of January 1739, view of an extremely high landmass at 54º latitude and 28º 30´ longitude. We named it the Cape of the Circumcision. For twelve days we were unable to land there because of the icebergs, the fog and adverse winds. From the 12th to the 25th [January], we coursed latituded 51º for 425 leagues, always seeing whales and sealions etc. 5 February, at 44º 30´, the vessels separated. M Bouvet made for the Cape of Good Hope and M Hay for the Isle de France. 4 March, anchorage at Cape of Good Hope, where we recognised that we had been carried to the east coast; conjectured that strong winds, from the 25th to 31st January, had done it. Arrived in France 24 June without loss of any man, despite the extreme fatigue of the voyage. |
CARTE
DES TERRES AUSTRALES Comprises entre le Tropique du Capricorne et
le Pôle Antarctique Où se voyent les Nouvelles
découvertes faites en 1739 au Sud du Cap de Bonne Esperance
Par les Ordres de Mss DE LA COMPAGNIE DES INDES Dressées sur
les Memoires et sur la Carte Originale de Mr de Lovier Bouvet
Chargé de cette Expedition Par Philippe Buache de l'Academie
Rle des Sciences, Gendre de feu Mr Delisle Pr Géographe du ROY De la même Acad. PLAN et VUE des Terres DU CAP DE LA CIRCONCISION Situé a 34 degrés de Latitude Meridle Et environ a 28 deg. 30 min de Longitude Glaces Vues en Janvier 1739 TERRE qui s'étend 8 a 20 li a l'ENE et 6 li au SE Cap de la Circoncision Cette VAriation a eté Observ[é] de 6º 30' sur un Compas et de 4º sur un autre le 30 dec 1738 a la lat de 32º 26' et a 35º 43' de Longitude Ces Glaces ont paru avoir 2 a 300 pieds de haut. Et depuis une demie lieue jusqu'a 2 ou 3 li de tour. |
MAP
OF THE SOUTHERN LANDS contained between the Tropic of Capricorn
and the South Pole, where can be seen the new discoveries made in
1739 south of the Cape of Good Hope on the orders of the
Gentlemen of the Indies Company. Drawn up from the memoirs and
the original map of M de Lovier Bouvet, leader of this
expedition, by Philippe Buache of the Academie ROyale des
Science, son-in-law of the late M Delisle, Private Geographer to
the King, and from the same Academie.
PLAN and VIEW of the lands of the CAPE OF THE CIRCUMCISION, situated at 34 degrees southern latitude and about 28 degrees, 32 minutes longitude. Icebergs seen in January 1739. LAND which extends 8 to 20 leagues to the east north-east and 6 leagues to the southeast. Cape of the Circumcision. This variation was observed: 6º 30´ on one compass and 4º on another, on 30 December 1738, at latitude 32º 26´ and at 35º 43´ longitude. These icebergs seemed to be 2 to 300 feet high and from half a league to 2 or 3 leagues around.
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| A PARIS sur le Quay de la Megisserie au St Esprit prés le Pont Neuf sous le Privilege de l'Academie Rle des Sciences le 3 Septembre 1739 | At PARIS son the Quai de la Megisserie at St Esprit, near the Pont-Neuf, under the privilege of the Academie Royale des Sciences, 3 September 1739 | ||